Falling American Values: Rapist Cosby is Free

Just like other rich men who buy impunity–men like Donald Trump and Bill Clinton–accused rapist Bill Cosby has a litany of rape & sexual assault allegations made against him over a long period of time. (See list below)

Following six days of testimony the jury is deadlocked.

This jury of seven men and five women bused in from Pittsburgh to a Montgomery County Philadelphia Court because of pre-trial publicity tainting local juries got the case last Monday night. By Thursday, they were deadlocked but continued to deliberate, reviewing reams of testimony. On 17 June, the jury said it was hopeless and the judge accepted a defence motion for mistrial.

“Do not in any way feel you have let the justice system down,” Judge O’Neill told the 12 jurors.

According to NBC News, “Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill declared a mistrial, but the case against the legendary comedian isn’t over: Prosecutors said they will retry him on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, a charge that carries 10 years in prison.”

Lachele Covington, a 20-year-old actress, filed a police report accusing Cosby of touching her inappropriately after a dinner at his house, according to the New York Post. The district attorney’s office decided that no crime had been committed.

13 January 2005

Andrea Constand, a former college athlete, went to the police to report an incident involving Cosby, saying that the comedian had drugged and assaulted her. After the district attorney decided that he thought he did not have enough evidence to convict, Constand filed a civil suit against the comedian, which was settled out of court in 2006. A reported 13 unnamed “Jane Doe” witnesses, as well as one named witness – Tamara Green – did not get the opportunity to testify in court.

10 February 2005

Tamara Green, a lawyer in California, was the only witness to prior sexual assaults in the Constand civil suit to allow herself to be named. In February 2005, she spoke to NBC’s Matt Lauer on the Today show, saying that in the 1970s Cosby drugged her with what she was told was cough medicine, then took her to her apartment and groped her. She told the Guardian “he was like a spider, sitting there waiting”.

23 June 2005

Beth Ferrier, one of the anonymous “Jane Doe” witnesses in the Constand suit, came forward to the Philadelphia Daily News while the suit was still ongoing about an alleged incident in which Cosby drugged her in Colorado in the 1980s.

18 December 2006

Barbara Bowman, an aspiring actress who was 17 when Cosby first met her, was another of the “Jane Doe” witnesses in the Constand suit, but came forward to People magazine, saying that Cosby drugged and abused her on multiple occasions.

17 November 2014

Joan Tarshish came forward in an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, saying that Cosby drugged her and sexually abused her on two occasions. She told Lemon that in 1969, when she was 19, Cosby made her a drink. “Shortly after that I passed out,” she said. “I woke up … with him removing my underwear.”

17 November 2014

Linda Joy Traitz posted on Facebook that in the 1970s, when she was 19 and working at a restaurant, Cosby drove her to the beach and offered her pills from “a briefcase filled with assorted drugs”, and then became “sexually aggressive” with her. “He offered me pills and said it would help me to relax, and I kept refusing but he kept offering,” she told the Washington Post.

18 November 2014

Janice Dickinson, a supermodel and TV star, told Entertainment Tonight that Cosby had drugged and sexually assaulted her in Lake Tahoe in 1982.

19 November 2014

Therese Serignese came forward to WBTV in West Palm Beach, Florida, saying that Cosby drugged and then had sex with her after a party in the 1970s, when she was 19. She was another “Jane Doe” witness in the Constand case.

20 November 2014

Renita Chaney Hilltold a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh that she had met Cosby in the 1980s, when she was 15, and an aspiring model and actress. She said that Cosby flew her to “a number of cities” around the country, where she would be summoned to his hotel room at night. Once there, she said, he would insist that she have a drink, which she said she believes was drugged.

20 November 2014

Carla Ferrigno, a former Playboy bunny and the wife of Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, accused Cosby of grabbing her roughly at his home in Hollywood in 1967. Her accusation appeared in the Daily Mail.

20 November 2014

Louisa Moritz, an actress who starred in the 1970s TV show Love American Style, also came forward on 20 November. She told TMZ that Cosby attempted to force her to give him oral sex in the green room before an appearance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in 1971.

21 November 2014

Andrea Leslie, a model and actress from Warren, Michigan, alleged inan interview with the New York Daily News that in 1992 he summoned her to his hotel room in Las Vegas, claiming it was for an audition, poured her a drink and demanded she act drunk. She said she came out of the bathroom to find him naked on a bed, and said she now suspects the drink was drugged.

21 November 2014

Kristina Ruehlitold Philadelphia Magazine that she met Cosby in 1965, when she was working as a secretary at a talent agency. She said that he invited her to his house, where he drugged her and tried to force her into oral sex. Like Serignese, Bowman and Ferrier, Ruehli was a “Jane Doe” witness in the Constand case.

22 November 2014

Victoria Valentino, a Playboy bunny, told the Washington Post that Cosby drugged her after dinner in Los Angeles, along with another actress, Meg Foster. She said that he drove the two of them to his apartment, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him.

22 November 2014

Joyce Emmons, a comedy club operator, told TMZ that in the 1970s Cosby gave her a white pill for a migraine, and that she later woke up in bed with a friend of his. She said that Cosby told her later the pill was a quaalude, a recreational sedative-hypnotic popular at the time.

24 November 2014

Jewel Allison, a former model, alleged in an interview with the New York Daily News that Cosby gave her a drugged glass of wine and forced him to put her hands on his genitals.

11 December 2014

Beverly Johnson, an actress and supermodel, wrote a long piece for Vanity Fair in which she said that Cosby drugged her after a dinner in the mid 1980s, having invited her to read for a part in The Cosby Show. She said that her body went into “automatic survival mode” after he came over and put his hands around her waist and that she started yelling at Cosby, calling him a “motherfucker.” She said that she did not go public with the story at the time because she was worried that her career would suffer.

Why #Boycott #BillCosby?

Because at some point we need to say “no” to people who are doing comedy tours or other money-makers on the basis of publicity they have received from survivors of their alleged sexual violence.

In detail we have examined many complaints and while dismissing none, note that some comprise criminality to a horrid degree; some are boldly misogynistic and criminal; few are just revoltingly immoral with nominal criminality if any, depending on the jurisdiction. That’s a fair and generous assessment of the balance of probability of the accused’s culpability.

Should women and children be subjected to the kind of humiliation Bill Cosby has subjected to the select group of women and teens who have dared to complain about his sexual malfeasance? No. That’s our point. The argument that Cosby has not been convicted of his alleged offences does not hold any water with us. RINJ has boycotted and even blockaded large corporations and so-called “comedians” like Daniel Tosh (http://youtu.be/a4VV2t4Zlx0) for dangerously promoting rape culture.

Only 6% of rape crimes ever lead to a prosecution of any kind. Statistically 96% to 98% of all sexual assault accusations prove to be true. For most major crime the false allegation factor is usually only 2% and in study after study, sex crime shows little to no variance in this context in any country. On the balance of probability the complaints against Cosby are a gold standard for their probability of truthfulness.

Mr. Cosby’s conduct of trying to make money from the woes of women he has allegedly victimized speak to his character and also his probability of guilt. His cavalier attitude makes this worse. On the balance of probability The RINJ Foundation’s board has made a decision to boycott this person. How one conducts their behaviour will inevitably determine how their life will go. #BillCosby made his choices and his conduct has seriously degraded and tarnished his life’s work. He should not have the stage nor a microphone to advance misogyny or rape culture again in his life and should spend the rest of his days making recompense to the people he has victimized. That is the opinion of The RINJ Foundation.

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